Financial Technology

Icelanders Warming Up to Comarch's Convergent Billing Solution

Gone are the days when customers reached out to different operators for different services. With customer demand for convergent services increasing, today a single operator can not only offer a variety of services but can integrate all service charges onto one customer invoice. Enter convergent billing.

Siminn, a major telecom operator in Iceland, provides a wide portfolio of services for both residential and business markets, which include fixed line, mobile, internet and IP TV, as well as managed services. It launched nationwide mobile 3G service in 2007 and is likely to upgrade to 4G. In order to manage such complex offerings, optimized and efficient billing processes are crucial, and that’s why it chose the Comarch (News - Alert) convergent billing system.

“It is a great challenge to work. This newly announced business collaboration will lead to another very valuable reference for Comarch,” said Piotr Piatosa, vice president and director of the telecommunications business unit at Comarch.

Comarch convergent billing is suitable both for traditional and modern business models, including multiservice operators, content providers and MVNOs. It can consolidate any number and combination of products and services onto a single bill, regardless of the type of product and market segment.

Iceland may be a small country with a relatively small population, but the penetration rates for network–related products and services are said to be among the highest in the world. According to sources, almost 90 percent of the households have a computer and more than 80 percent are connected to the Internet. Demand is high and continuous.

It thus makes it all the more necessary to ensure that customers make a single payment for all services. The new billing system is expected to provide customers with a modern payment platform and improve the overall efficiency of the billing process.

Siminn also needed a future-proofed support system with a strong focus on customer experience. It looked for an agile organization that had technical expertise and a dedicated approach. Comarch fit the bill.

“We highly value long term relationships with our business partners and we see Comarch as an agile organization that has a lot to offer for telecoms, especially in today’s digital services era,” said Eric Figueras, vice president and CTIO at Síminn.

Icelanders can now expect a unified bill when taking advantage of the discounts multiple-service customers are entitled to. Both prepaid and post paid customers will get the same centralized customer care and support.